Thursday, February 4, 2016



Complete DHS Report for February 4, 2016

Daily Report                                            

Top Stories

• Severe snow storms traveling across the Midwest closed 14 highways in several States, cancelled more than 950 nationwide flights February 2 – February 3, and prompted school closures to remain in effect February 2. – CNN

6. February 3, CNN – (National) Winter storm buries parts of Midwest; sets off tornadoes in deep South. Severe snow storms traveling across the Midwest closed 14 highways in several States, cancelled more than 950 national flights February 2 – February 3, created tornadoes in Mississippi and Alabama, and prompted schools to remain closed February 2 in response to the storm.

• A former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission scientist pleaded guilty February 2 and admitted to an attempted cyberattack on U.S. government computers in an attempt to extract sensitive information on nuclear weapons that could be passed to a foreign country. – Associated Press

13. February 2, Associated Press – (International) Guilty plea in attempted cyberattack on US govt. computers. A former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) scientist pleaded guilty February 2 and admitted to an attempted cyberattack on U.S. government computers where he spear-phished U.S. Department of Energy employees with emails that he thought contained a virus in order to extract sensitive information on nuclear weapons that could be passed to a foreign country. The former NRC scientist entered a foreign embassy in the Philippines and offered to sell more than 5,000 addresses of government employees in exchange for over $18,000. Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/02/02/guilty-plea-in-attempted-cyber-attack-on-us-govt-computers.html

• Microsoft issued a recall February 2 for about 2.25 million of its AC power cords sold with its Surface Pro convertible tablet devices due to the power cords overheating, emitting flames, and posing electrical shock hazards. – Reuters See item 2 below in the Information Technology Sector

• A February 3 fire at a Highland Park warehouse housing multiple businesses caused extensive damage to the facility, prompted an evacuation of surrounding areas, and caused a boil water advisory for area residents, among other actions. – Detroit News

25. February 3, Detroit News – (International) Highland Park issues boil water alert amid massive fire. A February 3 fire at a Highland Park warehouse housing multiple businesses caused extensive damage to the facility, prompted an evacuation of surrounding areas, caused a boil water advisory for area residents, and closed the George Washington Carver Elementary school due to impact of the fire. Officials were working to determine the cause of the fire and were assessing the total amount of damages. Source: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2016/02/03/highland-park/79742504/

Financial Services Sector

4. February 2, Reuters – (National) Morgan Stanley to pay $63 million U.S. mortgage bond settlement: FDIC. The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) announced February 2 that Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $62.95 million to settle allegations that the bank misrepresented securities in offering documents and sold toxic mortgage-backed securities to 3 banks, the Colonial Bank of Montgomery, Alabama; Security Savings Bank of Henderson, Nevada; and United Western Bank of Denver, which later failed. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-morgan-stanley-settlement-idUSKCN0VB249

Information Technology Sector

19. February 3, Softpedia – (International) Dual-Mode DMA ransomware cracked, users can recover files for free. Security researchers from Malwarebytes discovered a flaw in the DMA ransomware that could allow victims to decrypt their encrypted files without paying the ransomware after discovering that the ransomware’s encryption key was hard-coded in its binary, allowing victims to re-download the malicious file and input the encryption key inside the ransom note to unlock their files. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/dual-mode-dma-ransomware-cracked-users-can-recover-files-for-free-499848.shtml

20. February 3, SecurityWeek – (International) WordPress 4.4.2 patches open redirect, SSRF flaws. WordPress released version 4.4.2 for its content management system that patched an open redirection vulnerability, a server-side request forgery (SSRF) which affected certain local Uniform Resource Identifiers (URLs), and 17 flaws affecting WordPress versions 4.4 and 4.4.1.

21. February 3, SecurityWeek – (International) Comodo browser breaks security: Google researcher. A researcher from Google found that the Chromodo web browser that comes installed with Comodo’s Internet Security product disables the same origin policy (SOP) and effectively turns off all Web security, allowing malicious scripts opened in one browser to interact with other windows and infect several systems. Comodo released a patch to fix the vulnerability, but researchers found the patch was ineffective. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/comodo-browser-breaks-security-google-researcher

22. February 2, Reuters – (National) Microsoft recalls 2.3 mln power cords sold with Surface Pro tablets. Microsoft issued a recall February 2 for about 2.25 million of its AC power cords sold with certain models of the Microsoft Surface Pro convertible tablet devices after the company received a total of 61 consumer reports that the power cords overheated, emitted flames, and posed electrical shock hazards. Source: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/02/microsoft-recalls-23-mln-power-cords-sold-with-surface-pro-tablets.html

Communications Sector

Nothing to report